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Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Voeckler Again

Stage 16

The Tour is slowly working its way to
an end. There was a little dispute between the two French
commentators today. The guy who fills up the minutes with prattle
and patriotic enthusiasm said that it was a great stage, and that
feats of the French were once again heroic. Voeckler was having
another day of glory (as in La Marseillaise). Laurent Jalabert, who
was a champion cyclist and adds analysis and colour to the programme
said that nothing much happened during the stage. This was about the
time they finished climbing the third climb, and was essentially
true. He was admonished by Thierry Adam, the continuity guy, who
said he should not say that. I can understand that, they were, after
all, trying to get as many people to watch as possible and make it
interesting to Mr. Tout le Monde. Both were right of course. My
wife even said, after we had spent several enjoyable hours in front
of the telly, that nothing happened. She knows a bit about cycle
racing. The top ten looks pretty much as it did, except the downward
slide of Evans. It is almost utterly certain that Evans cannot win
the Tour. In that sense, the collapse of Evans' challenge happened,
but not much else.

There is a slightly different view,
which takes each stage by itself. That is, we think of each stage as
a classic race, where winning it or performing heroically gives a
rider a place in history. Even if nothing changes in the overall
(Grand Tour) race itself. In that sense, we would find this stage
incredibly interesting and astounding. This view is OK, as it gives
more importance to the exploits of each day. But it is a certainty,
an absolute certainty, that when the escape went off, the big names,
the leaders of teams, would NEVER have let it go if they were not
interested in the overall GC, the overall victory. So the angle of
“nothing happened” must be seen, as well as a lovely day of
racing.

Having said that, the hero of the day
was, once again, Thomas Voeckler, the darling of the French and many
others too. Although strangely disliked by many keen cycling people.
He not only won the huge mythic stage over the four totally famous
cols of the “Circle of Death”, Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and
Peyresourde, but did it in his usual way, hitch onto an early attack
having lost so many minutes that no one cared. Voeckler then then
crosses each of the cols first, gathering enough points to win the
King of the Mountains jersey. In fact, the last two cols he crossed
totally by himself, which is very heroic indeed. However you look
at this day, you really cannot do much more. The escape had 38
riders in it, all of whom could be ignored by the GC riders, who rode
together to the end of the stage, Nibali, Wiggo and Froome taking one
minute or more on the top ten rivals (except Evans who lost 5
minutes). Voeckler's feat was actually very impressive as his ride
gives him a four point lead on the former holder of the spotted
jersey for the “best climber”. So tomorrow is the day when
either Voeckler or Kissiakoff will win the jersey. Nice Day. Bravo,
Thomas. That is the second stage he has won this year, both after
the rest day. It does bother me slightly that if you asked everyone
who knew anything who is the “best climber on the Tour”, I cannot
imagine more than 1 of 20 would say Voeckler or Kessiakoff. Last
year it was Sanchez, and I bet approaching 9 or 10 might have said he
was the “best climber”. End of hobby horse.

For much of the day, Voeckler was
accompanied by Brice Feillu, who won a mountain stage in the Tour in
2009. Since then he has done almost nothing whatever. But today,
suddenly, after years of nothing, that he was going to do something
big. However, he got dropped by Voeckler and finished fifth. He was
on the edge of tears many minutes after the stage was over. He is
someone who was supposed to be the new generation of French riders,
but turned out not to be all that good. A small sad story. He has a
brother, and they tried to stay on the same team, based on Brice's
victory, but the edge wore off and they are on two teams. One of
many small tragedies of any day on the Tour.

It should be said that the two top
competitors for Wiggins (and Sky) had quite different fates today.
Cadel Evans, who was everyone's joint favourite, along with Wiggins,
got dropped on the third climb and never really recovered, or was it
the Tourmalet. He dropped another five minutes on the GC guys, and
is now in seventh place. Oddly enough, his faithful lieutenant, a
young American called Tejay Van Garderen is now a few seconds ahead
of him in sixth. The management decision today clearly was to let
Tejay ride his own race, and leave everyone else to help Cadel.
Tejay did fine, kept up with the yellow jersey peloton almost all the
way. We will see him contending for the victory next year, or the
year after for sure, as he can climb and time trial. If he were not
obligated to help out Cadel, we have no idea what he might have done,
but a job is a job. It is a rather good way to learn how to win a
Tour is ride next to a potential or recent winner, help them out.

The other contender left, usually
considered a bit of an outsider, is Vicenzo Nibali. He managed one
serious attack about five k from the top of the last climb. It was
indeed a powerful attack. At the end of the attack, there were only
three of them left, and they rode to the finish together. Sadly for
Vicenzo, the other two were Christopher Froome and Wiggo. He simply
could not drop the two Sky riders. In fact, neither of the Sky
riders seemed to be in the slightest difficulty. Nibali accelerated,
got a hundred metres maybe, and the Sky riders just rode back up and
said hello. Maybe took the Sky guys 500 metres or so. No problem.
Wiggins never even had to get off his saddle. I am sure Nibali might
give it one more go tomorrow, maybe from a bit further out. The
finish is at altitude. However, I think everyone pretty much thinks
that there is no one in the peloton, and more importantly no team in
the peloton, that can beat the Sky team and the two best Sky riders.
Simple as that. Unless something happens.

If it weren't for the remnants of the
escape (ESCAPE wins again) that would have been an almost perfect
example of a “royal escape”. That's when the top GC riders, ride
away from everyone else. But it was an imperfect example because
this royal escape finished 11th through 13th.
Still and all it was kind of dramatic in a low key way, quite mythic
pictures will come from that little sub-escape.

There was a long article in l'Equipe
today about Sky, giving all the personnel, the various vehicles, the
mattresses and pillows for each rider. One thing is clear, some of
these “continental” teams have no idea how the “Anglo Saxon”
mind/culture (that's what the French call the Brits, and other
nations) can get down to details. The list of vehicles was quite
impressive. One bus, one camping car, 2 race cars, back-up race car,
one workshop truck, one large truck, three small vans, 3 VIP cars.
Incredible, as usual, what money can buy. It is pretty well known
that they have the biggest budget of all teams, maybe matched by the
Russian national team, called Katusha. The French or Spanish or
Italians don't really have a team like Katusha or Sky. Kazakhstan
does. The USA doesn't, yet. I think they might have a budget of 20
million quid. 15 at least, no one really knows. The budget of my
French town of seven thousand is 21 million. Nothing like a big
football team of course, but there is some money in top level bike
racing. The Sky team have a cook who inspects the premises of every
hotel they use. If it is not clean enough, they find alternatives.
It is not unusual to get some kind of gastro, if you eat carelessly,
or clean your hands carelessly, in France. Especially in strange
hotels every night. Maybe everywhere, but certainly in France. Some
teams (like Europcar), take along a dining/cooking van, where the
riders eat. Think about it. In addition we learned that Bradley is
on a NO residue diet. No fibre. Pretty interesting for some people.
Like me, who knows those diets well. You can win the Tour on a no
residue diet. There you go, stuff you didn't know.

Did you know that if there are only two
yellow jersey holders this year, as looks to be the case, it would be
the first time since 1999 that only two riders wore yellow. I know
from memory that the most is 8 different yellow jersey wearers, and
on at least three occasions, a rider has worn the yellow jersey for
the entire race. Nope, don't remember who, and might not have time
to look it up. I tried after all, but after fifteen minutes, I quit.
You can look up who wore the yellow jersey through an entire Tour,
if you are keen.

I do like the apres-Tour show on French
TV. Today they interviewed a complete Tour nutter and keen cyclist
who runs a hotel. He has displayed Tour related bike stuff
everywhere in this hotel's public rooms. Jerseys, photos, bikes and
anything that has to do with the Tour are everywhere. He has a bike
of Fignon's, for example. A gift. Then ... he took the TV cameras
to a room which no one is allowed into. In fact, he carries the key
around with him 24/7. In the room were piles of jerseys and water
bottles, and other stuff we didn't even see with the camera angle.
In fact, he showed us one water bottle that was given to him by
Virenque, whom he obviously thinks is a great rider. He shook it and
said that the water left in the bottle, was from when he was given
it. Honest. That is what he said. The camera really did not show
the entire store room, so I have no idea what is in the rest of it.
It was just a reminder that there are other people whose Tour
fanaticism is worse than mine, as it lasts all year. Mine only lasts
the duration of the Tour. OK, a bit of reading and checking out
before and after, but basically during. This guy is at it all year
round, and very publicly.

One pleasing detail of today was
watching Vinokourov and Voigt in front of the race attacking, trying
to win the stage. Both old guys, riding their last Tour. Voigt is
an honest worker, of the highest caliber, winner of stages and races.
Terrific rider. Vino is a bit of a rascal, an ex-doper, a
politically savvy Kazhakistani. I still like him for his attacking
style. I still remember him shooting out of the peloton on the
Champs Elysée, and surprising everyone to win the stage. Normally
only sprinters win that stage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI4QfcW7qnY
(start about 11 minutes in if you are in a hurry). So Vino and
Voigt finished fourth and sixth, 3 and 4 minutes back. But it was
glorious to see them giving it a go.

Off to bed. Fortunately, I can begin
to watch a bit later tomorrow. It was nearly five hours today!

About Me

I have been writing and corresponding about the Tour each July for eighteen years. The Tour is a bit of a passion, but riding a bike is what I do all the year around. My club has a site http://www.cyclo-club-bedarieux.com/guppy/